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ORATION 



DELIVERED ON THE 



FOURTH OF MJIECK 1813, 



BEFORE 



THE ASSOCIATION OP 



DEMOCRx\TIC YOUNG MEN 



OF THE 



CITY AND LIBERTIES OP 



PUIMBELFJIM. 



By JONATHAN B; SMITH, Esq. 

President of the Association, 



PRINTED FOR THE ASSOCIATION, 



.5 



At a stated meeting of the Association of Demo- 
cratic Young Men of tlie City and Liberties of PhiU 
adelphia, held on the 6th day of March 1813, 

Resolved unanimously, that the thanks of the As- 
sociation be presented to Jonathan B. Smith, Esq. 
for the excellent Oration delivered by him on the 4th 
instant, and that he be requested to furnish a copy 
thereof for publication. 



Extract from the minutes 



JAMES MADISON PORTER, 

First Secretary. 



District of Pennsylvania, to wit: 

Be it remembered, that on the seventeenth day 
of March, in the thirty-seventh year of the Inde- 
pendence of the United States of America, a.d. 18il3, 
James M. Porter & William I. M'Lees, of 
the said district, have deposited in this office the 
title of a book, the right whereof they claim as 
proprietors, in the words following, to wit : 

" Oration delivered on the Fourth of March, iSlS, 
before " The Association of Democratic Young 
Men of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia," 
by Jonathan B. Smith, Esq. President of the Asso- 
ciation." 

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the 
United States, intituled, "An act for the encourage- 
ment of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, 
Charts and Books, to the authors and proprietors 
of such copies during the times therein mentioned." 
And also to the act, entitled, " An act supplemen- 
tary to an act, entided, " an act for the encourage- 
ment of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, 
Charts and Books, to the authors and proprietors of 
such copies during the times therein mentioned," 
and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of de- 
signing, engraving, and etching historical and other 
prints." 

D. CALDWELL, 

Clerk of the district of Pennsylvania, 



ORATION. 



Gentlemen, — In rising to discharge the duty 
%'ou have assigned me, I take particular pleasure in 
recollecting the cause of our present exultation. — 
No scene can be more interesting or more aublime 
to the patriotick eye, than that of a well conducted 
election. Men of all ranks, denominations and de- 
grees there assemble on an equal stage for the best 
purposes. There, relinquishing the common and 
the dull pursuits of life, they clothe themselves in 
the nobler form of sovereign freemen; abandoning 
for a moment the desire of private aggrandisement, 
they unite in an universal sentiment of publick good. 
If a few unprincipled men carry with them, even 
there, the sordid spirit of intrigue and selfishness, 
they are but few; If many more carry with them, 
prejudices and ignorance, a fixed determination to 
support improper men and improper measures, they 
are innocent, but misguided and deluded; while the 
great mass of the people, too independent to be cor- 
rupted, too enlightened to be deluded, too vast to 
be influenced and too powerful to be awed, are go- 
verned by the energy of patriotism and led by that 



common sense, which is the surest guide to the 
common weal. 

I congratulate you, therefore, gentlemen on this 
evident superiority to other nations, the freedom and 
order of your elections. The comitia and assem- 
blies of ancient nations were frequently disgraced 
by the riots of contending parties. The hustings 
of England are most commonly a scene of outrage 
and brutality, and the elections of other nations have 
been contaminated by blood and murder. But you, 
if not more refined, at least more humane, conduct 
your suffrages with propriety and order. Think on 
the installation which is this day taking place. Think 
that you have chosen a magistrate in point of res- 
pectability the fisrt, in point of power not the least 
among the executive authorities of the earth. Think 
that you have done this in the face of a vigilant and 
respectable party exerting every legal means of vio- 
lent opposition. Think that you have done it open- 
ly, honourably and constitutionally, " while heaven 
and men were judges of your actions." When you 
reflect on these things, when you compare this op- 
position and this success with similar scenes in other 
parts of the world, you cannot but experience some 
feelings of self congratulation, and be thankful to 
the ordinations of the Almighty that your lot is cast 
in this land. What would have been your feelings 
had the guardians of your rights and privileges been 
chosen by the bril:ery of an Italian conclave ? what 
would have been your degradation had your success 
been procured by the violence of a Polish diet? If 
in the darkness of crime you had triumphed, and 



your votes had been given or repressed among arm- 
ed electors, among the gleamings of hostile weapons, 
among the execrations of disappointed ambition and 
the groans of dying men? God avert these horrors! 
may our poll always remain a consecrated spot, con- 
secrated to civil order, to impartial justice, and if 
necessity and the constitution ordain that one divi- 
sion of our citizens must annually triumph over 
another, let that triumph be gained and commemo- 
rated in harmony and peace, in the spirit of the 
constitution and of equal liberty. 

It is written by the finger of a divine providence, 
whose dispensations we are little competent to scru- 
tinize, that human wisdom must be erroneous in its 
pursuit of truth. Men cannot agree. Let their ob- 
ject be of the last importance , let it concern their 
temporal or eternal welfare ; let it comprehend the 
researches of science or the extent of the universe ; 
let it embrace the dearest relations of civil life ; of 
father, son and brother, of friends, of family, and of 
our country, dearer than each, because it contains 
all ; still they must differ. If then unity in the opi- 
nions of the world cannot be expected, it becomes 
us to be candid in the consideration of our own, and 
liberal in our judgments of other men's tenets. We 
need not harshly condemn those persons whose opi- 
nions we totally disclaim. The spirit of Toleration 
is the spirit of Democracy, and it would ill become 
us to cast it off when we hold as the corner stone of 
our faith, an undeviating respect to the opinion of 
each individual of the human race. We, born and 
educated in a free country, look with abhorrence on 



8 

those who In other countries patiently wear the chains 
of servitLick. But if there exist men who madly pre- 
fer slavery to freedom, darkness to light, and misery 
to happiness, let them enjoy their frenzy ; but let 
them enjoy it alone. That which we adore is in our 
possession; civil, religious and political liberty; it was 
purchased by the labour and the blood of our ances- 
tors, and it is a duty solemnly incumbent on us to 
maintain it inviolate, uucontaminated, unpolluted, 
unsuspected. 

Immediately after the glorious revolution which 
released us from the trammels of a foreign domina- 
tion, it became our duty to establish a government 
of our own.. This government was to coincide with 
the popular opinion, because it was to be the creation 
of the people themselves. But as the only manner 
in which they could express their united opinions, 
was by the medium of representation, their represen- 
tatives differed in some minor points, and even ma- 
terial forms of the government they were to establish. 
One set of men enthusiastically swelled with the 
hopes of almost absolute and unrestrairied liberty, 
under light and equal laws, further confii med by the 
pursuits of the literary and philosophical v/orld — 
and further, beholding all men in the mirror of their 
own minds, and their own characters, virtuous, un- 
assuming and patriotick, were endeavouring to sup- 
port a form of government too simple and too good 
for the degeneracy of the present age. Another set 
of men, more selfish, more ambitious, more de- 
signing, but equally imprudent, were about to ex- 
tinguish the spirit of the country and bury it under 



9 

their European prejudices, by erecting institutions 
fatal to the diffusion of general happiness and 
properity, by conferring the principle powers 
of the state to certain individuals and to cer- 
tain classes. The adoption of our admirable con- 
stitution checked the strength of these notions and 
gave birth to other views and other systems. But, 
gentlemen, if we can justly regret that the cabals 
and intrigues of ambitious men, intermingled some 
provisions in our constitution not altogether conge- 
nial with its spirit, we have the consolation to re- 
flect, that it is the noblest trophy of the REPUB- 
LICAN PRINCIPLES— the everlasting memorial 
of the virtue and wisdom of those times, and the 
glorious and sanctified repository of the principles of 
our revolution. May it be the sacred ark of our 
national security, wliich shall accompany our wan- 
derings, and preserve us by the all saving power of 
those principles; those principles which saw their 
first decisive triumph when the republican party 
unanimously stationed in the presidential chair, him 
whose brows were bound with the laurels and whose 
heart was warmed with the feelings of the revolution; 
those principles which rest on the broad foundation 
of universal good, which place as their central point, 
around w^hich every part of their system revolves, 
the idea of distributing and preserving equal and 
exact justice to all men, and of doing this by means 
agreeable to the majority of the community to be 
benefited by the distribution. 

These principles have in all ages been the light of 
society and the admiration of the' wise and good, 

B 



10 

Even before tlicir final triumph the heroes and phi- 
losophcrs of antiquity had written their eulogiiims 
on them in letters of adamant and gold; the best 
^itatesmen and the best warriors, the best thinkers 
and the best actors of modern times have con- 
firmed that eulogium by their writings and their 
blood. I need not record their names, gentlemen; 
for they were written on your infant hearts, when 
they first glowed with the feelings of humanity, when 
ihey first warmed with the idea of a country which 
we are bound to love, and opened to the earliest 
impressions of moral excellence or historick truth-, 
but I may confirm that sensation by the ordeal of 
rational discussion. Will any of you doubt, that 
men and society and government are most prosper- 
ous when they are most united? that men are most 
happy when left to the freest range of innocent and 
virtuoiiis actions? that society is most perfect when 
its members are most equal and congenial? and that 
p'overnment is most substantial when it derives its 
strength from the opinions of the community, and 
does not oppose itself to the cataractal current of 
popular desires? 

If you are doubtful on these topicks, turn your 
eyes to those periods of human existence, when men 
have appeared to most advantage; when by common 
consent society has been acknowledged more en- 
hghtened and refined, government more perfect and 
prosperous, and men more improved and happy 
than those recorded on any other page of history. 
You will find that then our republican principles 
have most prevailed and lighted and animated the 



ii 

minds of men. I pass over Greece, Italy and Kn- 
eland, and coir.e to this spot, this last asylum of 
the hopes and expectations of the human race! this 
sacred land on ^vhich the foot of tyrant never trod, 
over which the shackles of despotism dissipate into 
empty air. I look over what, little more than a cen- 
tury since, was a savage wilderness. I look over 
what is now an immense tract of civilization and 
prosperity from the St. LavvTcnce to the Mississippi, 
from the shores of the ocean to the distant regions 
of the west scarcely discerned in the blue horizon. 
I behold the lights of refinement penetrate even that 
gloom. I see the genius of humanity advance and the 
fiend of savasre life retreat. The wretched Indian de- 
serting the fury of his original nature, leaves his feasts 
of blood to taste the delights of social life, and aban- 
doning the tabernacles of his horrid gods, prostrates 
himself before the christian emblem of benevolence 
and peace. I turn to the cause of these interesting 
prospects ; I behold the spirit of republican govern- 
ment. What if the arm of despotism had been up- 
reared in terror to reclaim this land from desolation? 
How different would have htQU. tlie result ; but ^o^v 

On Erie's banks, where tygers steal along, 
And the dread Indian chants a dismal song. 
Where human fiends on midnight errands walk, 
And bathe in brains the murderous tomahawk. 
There shall the flocks on thymy pastures stray, 
And shepherds dance at summer's openin|pday. 
Each wandering genius of the lonely glen, 
Shall start to view the glittering haunts of, men. 



12 

We celebrate this day, gentlemen, the f.r.st ele- 
vation of the first President lo the chair of state. I 
pass over his merits and his name, the prosperity of 
his administration, and the deep regret M'hich the 
publick feel from his lamented death, which not only 
deprived the world of a hero and statesman, but 
left the commonwealth itself a prey to the ignorance 
of men who abandoned his principles ^vhile they 
preserved his name. I pass over the calamities of 
that period when the republick, oppressed and sick, 
fainted and staggered under their misrule. I will 
not destroy the pleasures of this day, by recalling 
■any painful recollections of the times to which I have 
referred. Suffer me to draw a veil over that awful 
period when the political bark was involved in the 
rage of conflicting tempests, when the weak helms- 
man gave himself to the advice of designing and 
ignorant friends, and the gulf of political perdition 
opened before us. The people of this country un- 
submissive to arrogant encroachments, felt no fear 
but as soon as they experienced the oppressive 
weight of the measures of 1798-9, gently released 
themselves from the misconduct of their malfeasant 
rulers. Passing over these disastrous times in quick 
review, let us contemplate the next brighter period, 
which we this day commemorate; when the third 
president also was inaugurated, and the man of the 
people ascended into his proper station; when repub- 
lican maxims again arose in the political hemis- 
phere anl scattered the light and life, their vernal 
and reviving influence over the country. Never 
were political measures attended with more sue- 



13 

cess than those of the last twelve years. They 
have been charged with a tincture of Philosophy, 
but it was that Philosophy which knows to create 
and diffuse and encourage human happiness; which 
proportions its means to its ends, and terminates in 
a complete triumph over ignorance and prejudice. 
They have been charged with theory, which means 
nothing more, than that designs were never under- 
taken without some plan, some system, some fore- 
sight and some prudence. Against the management 
and success of the commercial and financial system 
nothing can be said, for we saw the exports of the 
country increase to an unprecedented extent. We 
saw the people released from grievous impositions; 
we saw immense sums spared from the treasury to 
prevent needless wars with foreign powers; we sav^ 
science encouraged, the arts patronized and manu- 
factures rise around us, from the wisdom of our 
financial system. In short, we found the labour of 
the people of these United States meet whh natural 
reward, universal prosperity. We found in the v/ide 
limits of our nation, no man, no family, who could 
be called poor, while the government was as rich as 
was consistent with the principles of prudence. All 
this and more than my limits permit me to relate, we 
owe to the well regulated economy which succeeded 
an opposite system of peculation, prodigality and 
financial ruin; which, but that it coincided with the 
fashionable doctrines of the day, would have been 
scouted at first sight, since it had already drawn the 
government of England to the very edge of bojik- 
ruptcy, and had hurried that of France into an abyss 



14 

of blood, of arnachy and despotism. Nor was the 
wisdom of this period confined to pohtical economy; 
the wisest laws were made in relation to the privi- 
leges of the citizen; the blessings of our consitution 
were offered with a liberal hand to every individual 
of the human family who proved himself worthy to 
receive them. The press, " the palladium of our 
riehts ," " the chartered libertine," was released from 
cruel and unconstitutional restrictions, which violat- 
ed the feelings of men and the obligations of truth; 
the sacred homes of our families and domestic hap- 
piness, were protected by wise laws from outrage 
and dishonour; the civil government and the law, 
and the rights of jury trial, were then finally estab- 
lished. 

Nor were our concerns with foreign powers less 
wisely conducted. The maxim of our government 
was, Honourable peace and free commerce with every 
nation, entangling alliances with none; peace was 
our interest, our object and our reward. Instead 
of declaring ourselves the enemies of Spain, who 
had not materially injured or insulted us, v/e bought 
her territories for a fair price, through the brokerage 
of the French court, and in spite of clamour we 
kepi an unbroken peace with our next door neigh- 
bour, with whom it is our mutual interest to remain 
in perpetual peace. You all remember when an ar- 
mament was fitted out by a private person of genius 
and abilities, against the peace and wealth of iMex- 
ico in open opposition to the laws and government; 
you all remember how that armament was aided and 
ubetted; how it was directed against a country then 



15 

gasping for breath, under the embraces of the des- 
pot of Europe, and how it was counteracted, con- 
trouled and dissipated by a virtuous nnagistrate, and 
the omnipotent but unarmed power of the law. 
Such let ever be our policy with the Spanish conti- 
nent, united with us not merely by nature, but by 
interest and commerce. W ith the other nations of 
Europe with whom we were distantly connected, 
we kept a good understanding. \Vilh France, 
against whom a short war had been wcged in our 
own bosoms and our ov.'U streets, by marches and 
countermarches, and feus de joi and jubilees, we 
made an advantageous accommodation, with which 
if it had been preserved to the letter by thr.t unprin- 
pled and despotic pov/er, we could have no ground 
of complaint. With England we supported a peace 
with great patience and with much humility, as they 
were connected with us by similarity of laws, man- 
ners, usage and commerce: but still, according to 
our maxim to preserve peace while it was tolerable. 
Embassy after embassy, messenger after messenger, 
ministers treading on the heels of ministers, were 
dispatched in varying succession, and crossed the 
Atlantick like the figures of a showman's ianthorn 
solemnly grot^que. The gates of Saint James were 
perpetually open, the pavements of Downing-street 
v/ere alm^ost worn by the frequency of our suppli- 
cators for that, which in the name of humanity, in 
the name of God the common father of all, we had 
a right to demand. But the patience of our govern- 
ment was founded on a benevolent wish to avoid thr: 
calamities of war. And this disposition in a chris- 



16 

tian country, was honorable, was exemplary. We 
did not negociate through the despicable policy of 
fear- No, the man whose eminence enabled him to 
command the resources of this republic, this com- 
mercial republic, need not have trembled; he might 
be " confident against the world in iu"ms." But our 
patience was the self denial of true fortitude, of true 
religion, of true humanity, of every principle that 
enobles the heart of man and dignifies his nature. 

Such was the enlightened, liberal and merciful 
policy of our government, professing the same prin- 
ciples with us, and to whom we could appeal in the 
common language of equity, of justice and of usage. 
To the savages on our borders we appealed on the 
same principle, but in a different method; for we 
reclaimed them from wildness by persuasion and not 
by force. This plan, however, failed with the na- 
tions of Barbary — slaves, savages and robbers, igno- 
rant alike of humanity and law. But our govern- 
ment siezed the opportunity to make the A'editer- 
ranean a nursery of seamen and the cradle of mari- 
time heroes; the scene of an initiate naval glory, 
which rapidly seeks a nobler stage, and has already 
issued its actors on the broad Atlantick. Had we 
immediately launched into the oceaif an inmiense 
and unwieldy navy, without discipline, without 
skill and without experience, V\'c niight have sur- 
rendered it ingloriously to an older foe: but now, 
according to the course of nature, as we have laid 
our foundation in prudence, our hopes fear no dis- 
appointment. The little navy is increasing and Avill 
increase, growing in years and in honour, untill it 



17 

becomes our shield and our bulwark ; not our fear, 
but our glory. Witness those heroick names, 
Decatur, Hull, Jones and Bainbridge; witness their 
noble tars and gallant crews; witness the sinking 
honours of St. George's cross, and the ascendant 
splendour of our eagle banner. 

I cannot conclude my observations on this period, 
with bestowing a feeble tribute of gratitude to the 
man who directed and managed this grand and en- 
lightened policy. When I behold him breasting the 
torrent of opposition which arose before him; when 
I observe him persevering in his benevolent and en- 
enlarged political wisdom, amidst the gangs of spe- 
culators and detractors, who sought him for their 
victim and their sacrifice; when I see him persist 
and triumph, his character shining augustly above 
the clouds of calumny which were hurled around 
it, and his diposition still the same, placable and 
mild, forgiving and forgetting in retirement, the foes 
of an active life, I certainly respect, I almost revere 
him. Humanity is never immaculate; he too had 
his faults, he thought too well of mankind: but his 
many and uncommon virtues amply redeem it, and 
in the shades of Monticello he terminates a long 
and valuable life, devoted to the highest pursuits, 
to his friends and his country, amidst the esteem 
and veneration of the greater part of this nation. — 
May his retirement be blessed with domestick peace: 
may the applauses of the wise and good perpetually 
accumulate around his monumental fame. 

These times have passed over, the golden age of 
our prosperitv, when it arrived to its greatest height, 

C 



18 

'kVas doomed to experience a change. The retire- 
ment of the third president made way for a fourtk 
of a character somewhat different. The departments 
■were differently filled. Our implacable and relent- 
less rival pushed her aggressions to the last point. 
Outrage and dishonour were the ambassadors from 
the British throne. The good natured old king, 
bloody in his kindness, but still good natured, find- 
ing nobody to govern him, left his government, a 
victim of melancholy misfortune. The drunken and 
prostitute regency seized the sceptre with the shak- 
ing hand of intemperance and passion. He who a 
prince, had been permitted to associate with the 
;noble minds of England — with a Fox, an Erskine, 
a Moira — now a king, deserted their principles and 
shone from his father's throne in the putrid effulgence 
of moral, political and rational corruption. The ab- 
surd and dishonourable supplications from our mi- 
nisters were unheard, or if heard, were despised. 
Every law, every compact, every common right was 
at length trampled on ; and this peace-loving, this 
imassuming nation, had a last resort to save her sove- 
reignty from contempt and her contaminated charac- 
ter from dishonour. This resort was a war — a war c£ 
justice, a war of policy, a war of self preservation, a 
war of necessity, a war of humanity, and a war of 
lionour. 

I touch on these awful topicks with a trembling 
hand and imsandaled foot, because the ground on 
which I tread is holy; but with this awe resting on 
my soul and compassing my faculties, I shall not 
liesitate to pronounce the law of nature and of na- 
tions. 



19 

'Die socicil compact is a solemn contract betweeu 
mdividiuils and the government, which nothing can 
dissolve but perfidy. Tlie government binds itself to 
protect the citizen; the citizen binds himself to sup^ 
port the state. Our rulers have sworn, with official 
oaths, before their conscience and their God, to 
perform this contract, and if they neglect, wilfully 
and knowingly, the solemn duties of their engage- 
ment — however hard, however awful, they are foul 
with perjury and delusion. But one cause of this 
war is, that the lives and liberties, and persons and 
property of our unoffending citizens have been vio- 
lated, injured and destroyed by the opposed bellige- 
rent. They demand redress from our government, 
and it is forced by duty, by justice and by good 
faith, to avenge them. To punish the offender, or 
destroy iiis ability of offence. To procure by every 
means which God and nature has putwithin its pow- 
«r, indemnity for the past and security for the future. 
As to the policy of the present w^ar, can there be 
any doubt? Is not that the best w4iich soonest claims 
and asserts its injured rights? Shall I be told in reply 
that submission is policy, that ridiculous negocia- 
tion is policy, that recreant injustice to qur own citi- 
zens is policy? No man will so basely degrade him- 
self. Have not our destinies made us in some mea- 
sure a commercial nation, and will any man deny 
that it is good policy to support and maintain our 
commerce? Is it proper to abandon that trade which 
we have found beneficial; to desert the ocean or sail 
on it as slaves; to fly like cowards from the vtry 
field of our victories? No, my countrymen, this is 



20 

a war in defence of commerce and for the rights 
of the brave and worthy mariner, and if our mari- 
time affairs have ever constituted a great source of 
wealth and strength to the country and an object of 
regard and interest to the government, then is this 
war poUtick. But again: our savage neighbours on 
the frontiers have disturbed and will continue to dis- 
turb our peaceable inhal^itants, and burn their dwel- 
lings and massacre their families, as long as we suf- 
fer their christian ally to have a communion and 
connexion with them. Our British neighbours even 
under professions of friendship, instigated them to 
a savage and predatory warfare. Surely then, in 
point of policy, no objection can be made to a war 
that will root out the sting of this insidious serpent 
neighbour, and leave our husbandmen to enjoy the 
fruits of their labour, unterrified by the rifle or the 
scalping knife. 

But above all, this is a war of self preservation : 
a war in defence of our own constitution, our own 
laws, our own people and our own security. In the 
first place, the Regent openly avows his purpose to 
support the British maritime system. I ask no 
other words to express the ruin of our prosperity, the 
destruction of our laws and the annihilation of our 
commerce; they cannot exist together, if they meet 
they clash, and one or the other must be abandoned. 
I trust in God that no man in this country will hesi- 
tate which to defend; I trust in God that this coun- 
try cannot produce the viperous traitor, that will 
turn on our own laws and our own constitution. 



21 

In the next place we are told, that Canada is a 
barren desert and would be a burthensome conquest. 
God forbid that I should defend a war merely of 
conquest. But to a politician or a soldier, Canada 
is no barren rock; it is a fort, a fortress, a station 
from which troops may pour at a moment's notice 
and deluge our people in their own blood. From 
which spies and emissaries may at all times come, 
as from an harbour of treason, and infest our coun- 
try. It is a political poison tree in our neighbour- 
hood which must be destroyed or it will destroy us. 
If it will not be the ravager of the country, it will 
of the constitution, for what can be clearer, than 
that in time we shall have to support a standing army 
merely to watch and attend this dreadful neighbour? 
experience proves these assertions. Of what value 
in themselves were Gibraltar, Malta, Hanover, Ca- 
lais, Calcutta? None, but they were a bridle in the 
mouths of the adjacent states, and by means of their 
possession the British cabinet have kept the blood 
of mankind on tap for generations past, to satisfy 
their voracious thirst. Such will be our experience 
while they retain possession of a foot hold in Ame- 
rica. 

Have they not even under the banners of pretend- 
ed peace, declared an inexorable war against our 
existence? Have they not secretly bribed, and have 
they not openly procured advocates for a separation 
of our sacred union, for the destruction of our 
happiness, the corruption of our morals, the extinc- 
tion of our hopes and our liberties at one blow? All 
<ind more horrors than man or demon has ever con- 



"2 



ceived rest in those words — a dissolution of the 
union. May he whose tongue persuades it or whose 
arm attempts, be the execration and outcast of so- 
ciety! May he be curst! May he live in the burning- 
agonies of despair, and die the last of his polluted 
family! May he be blotted from existence and from 
memory! May he find no rest but in a shameful 
grave! May he find no mercy but before the judg- 
ment seat of God. 

If then it be necessary to support our laws, our 
liberties and our constitution; if it be humane to 
protect our mariners and our farmers, and to save 
the people from the continual effusion of innocent 
blood; if it be honourable to wash away the stains 
from our national flag and our national character, 
and to place our government on a station that will 
ensure it the respect of the world, then is this a 
war of necessity, of mercy and of honour; I mean 
not the empty honour of extended fame: but that 
honour, which, because it is the surety of peace and 
safety, is a solid and substantial blessing to an indi- 
vidual or a nation. 

I deplore the calamities and the woes of war, I sym- 
pathize with those who suffer in themselves, their 
connexions or their property, the deprivations of a 
national conflict. But I disdain that useless pusillani- 
mous spirit which weeps over evils, which it cannot 
prevent and will not remedy. Is the war painful to 
you? Does it put you to numberless inconveniences? . 
Does it damp your expectation or controul your in- 
terest? Does it reduce many to comparative penury? 
Do you ill short sincerely regret its existence and 



23 

fc;rvently wish for its termination ? Then, my coiin^ 
trymen, your opinion and wishes coincide with my 
own. I look forward to the return of peace as another 
sera for this nation. But the white robed seraph can 
only return through the temple of victory; and you, 
my countrymen, can never enjoy a substantial or a 
permanent peace, until you have been first complete- 
ly victorious. 

Then cheerly on courageous friends once more. 
By this one bloody trial of sharp war, 
To reap the harvest of perpetual peace. 

If therefore, my countrymen, you value your ex- 
istence and your liberties as a people, you must con- 
quer in the present war. I will not insult you by 
supposing you will give up every thing you have 
gained and every thing you enjoy, by an ignominous 
submission. But if that submission be made, I turn 
ray eyes from the consequences, for I shall see no- 
thing but misery and dismay. I shall see the people 
of this coiintiy degraded and enslaved, the horrors 
of civil anarchy and social war rearing their bloody 
banner, and a British viceroy raising his gloomy 
countenance and staring over our fallen constitution. 
You shall see the spirit of despotism rioting at large; 
an abandoned foreign soldiery, rendered ten thou- 
sand times worse by the demoralizing effects of civil 
confusion, as in Ireland, glutting themselves with 
the murder of our men, the violation of our women 
and the depredation of our property. But }ou will 
»ot submit, you will not consign the inhabitants of 



2-i 

the sea coast and the frontiers to such accumuluted 
horrors. 

There has been a wish long used by many, which 
I hope will find no currency witli you. It is, " may 
these things never happen in my time." Thus they 
put off the evil day from their own shoulders to rest 
on their devoted children: but you must be actuated 
by a more generous motive. You must meet the 
exigencies of the present moment, with prudence, 
with firmness and with fortitude, and triumph for 
yourselves and your posterity. 

I implore you therefore, for the sake of your chil- 
dren, to persevere in this war, to conquer for them 
and to leave them the inestimable inheritance of li- 
berty and peace. You are not arrived to that depth 
of mean and moral depravity as to think only of your 
money and yourselves. If you are; if the men of this 
country are, I deplore that 1 was born among you. 
I will fly from society to the shades of the wilderness. 
I will rest myself among the beasts of prey and con- 
sole myself with the moral instinct of the wolf, the 
tyger and lion, more social, more brave, more gene- 
rous than you. They labour, they fight, the}^ defy fa- 
tigue and danger for their young. Butyou are lovers 
of peace, when there is and can be no peace. You 
are scrupulous sophists of the letter of the constitu- 
tion, that you may not cross an imaginary line, a 
river or a rivulet to meet the enemies of your coun- 
try and your kin. Curses on such cowardly and de- 
testable learning. Arouse ! awake ! my countrymen, 
and defend your families and your homes. Can you 
behold the blood stained savage, his right arm rear^ 



25 

ed for murder ; can you see the dying mother, the 
violated daughter, the bleeding infant and the burn- 
ing cottage, and not relent ? I implore you on your 
affection for your children, by the love of your 
wives, by your esteem for your friends, by your re^ 
gard for your country — to terminate these horrors 
by what alone can end them: a successful and trium- 
phant v/ar. 

But if you have no affection for your neighbours 
and your children, have some respect to filial duty; to 
the precepts and example of your fathers. Look on 
their labours, their trials, and their triumphs. We 
are told of the hardships of the present times — Im- 
mortal God! What were the hardships of seventy 
six? What were the times that tried men's souls? 
What were the sufferings of the men of the revolu- 
tion, when they endured the winter's cold, without 
food, without raiment, and almost without hope? 
Thou knowestl for they were animated by a divine 
spirit— they suffered under thy eye, they fought the 
holy fight, and they were triumphant. Animate 
their children! guide their counsels and consecrate 
their arms, for they fight in a christian cause. 

If there be any in this assemblage, to whom the 
principles of the revolution are deservedly dear; if 
there be any who revere the character of the hero 
of that revolution, and are we nut all Americans, 
they must approve the war. Washington, had he 
lived, would have supported and conducted it. He 
who defended the character of the country in worse 
times, would not abandon it now. No, my country- 
men! his life, his principles, deny the supposition. 

D 



26 

■Let the memory of them fortify our energy and bur 
nish our arms. Let us imitate his example, his for- 
titude and his perseverance; and heaven will grant 
us his success. 

On the people, this government must rely for suc- 
cess. Your zeal, your energy, " your exertions 
must second those of your rulers;" 1 had almost 
said, must be their substitute. For surely they have 
not answered your expectations or your hopes. 

They cannot surely supr)Ose, that the people will 
desert them, or u'ish for a insecure peace before its 
time. But if they hesitate to carry on that war, which 
the people wage, and stand with swords in their 
hands only to be the .spectacle of an armed but idle 
nation; then it becomes your sacred duty to declare 
yourselves with fieedom, as I now do. To tell them 
that you have pronounced a war of necessity and 
justice: that it must be carried on with persever- 
ance and vigour: that the enemy at all events, must be 
himibled: that the spirit and resources of this coun- 
try are fully equal to the conflict ; and that you are 
able and willing to undergo every privation, to exert 
that spirit and grant those resources which are ne- 
cessary in the great contest. That you are deter- 
mined, at all hazards, to maintain the principles and 
independence of our glorious revolvtion, and to stand 
or fall by the laws, the liberties and the constitution; 
Tif our countrvo 



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